Weekly Posts on Literature, Philosophy, and Culture

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Philosophical idealism has a complex history with many variations. Most versions of idealism make univocal claims about the mind’s relationship to the world. Specifically, idealism maintains that objects of human knowledge are mind-dependent. Thus, reality is immaterial. The Irish poet W.B. Yeats was among others things an idealist. Although Matthew Gibson maintains that the poet […]

This poem is from Eilean Ni Chuilleanain’s The Second Voyage (Reprinted in The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry, Wake Forest UP, 2011): Odysseus rested on his oar and saw The ruffled foreheads of the waves Crocodiling and mincing past: he rammed The oar between their jaws and looked down In the simmering sea where […]

Although we’ve started a new year, we can still celebrate recent great titles in philosophy. Here are several significant contributions in the field: 1) T.M. Scanlon. Being Realistic About Reasons. (Oxford UP) 2) Bernard Williams. Essays and Reviews: 1959-2002. (Princeton UP) 3) Scott Soames. Analytic Philosophy in America and The Analytic Tradition in Philosophy, Vol. 1. […]

Philosophy can be an exciting, challenging, and exhilarating field of study. It often gets a bad rap for being an impractical (and not so cost effective) academic pursuit. Why study philosophy? Aside from extrinsic factors there is much intrinsic value in studying philosophy. Bertrand Russell, a famous logician and philosopher, succintly writes about the value […]

In no specific order or rank, the following list collects important books of philosophical literary fiction. These books are novels (or novellas) with philosophical or existential themes (e.g., God, free will, personal identity, the meaning of life): 1) Albert Camus. The Stranger and The Fall. [Essay: “The Myth of Sisyphus”]. 2) Jean-Paul Sartre. Nausea. [Drama: No […]

If I were asked for a list of the most significant philosophy books (ever written), then I might produce the following list. Why is such a list relevant? These books could be considered essential reads for any novice philosophy student or someone who is interested in reading philosophy… (this list is not comprehensive or ranked […]

Epicurus was a hedonist who argued for the value of prudence and moderation in all human endeavors. He maintained that our greatest happiness (the most indulgent pleasure) can be attained in the form of spiritual harmony, having peace of mind. We can attain this by eliminating the chimerical aspects of our false beliefs. For example, a false belief is that […]

Here are lines from David Ferry’s translation of Horace’s Epistles on fortune, authentic contentment, and the achievement of happiness. Horace suggests that we would do well to consider the efficacy of achieving happiness in the present–in daily life–as opposed to thinking about it as an abstract concept or as achievable in a remote future. It may […]

It starts with strange glances and whispers. Or perhaps you feel compromised, altogether too obedient, not yourself. You cannot think straight. You lose sleep and can’t eat. Is it madness after all? What daemon has possessed you? Perhaps it’s a comic mask. Or is it? Remember the Greek tragedies. Medea, Cassandra, Hecuba, Antigone. Even Ophelia […]

I learned that Robin Williams died today of an apparent suicide. We’ve lost another great talented actor. I saw Dead Poets Society eight times when it first came out in theaters. I admired Williams’s acting performance in the role of Mr. Keating, an English teacher at a private boy’s preparatory school, who inspired young men to […]